Meeting with pastors in Kigali

Tuesday afternoon, Danny, Jason and I had the opportunity to visit with three of the pastors of one of the denominations in Rwanda who oversea 150 churches throughout the country.  I asked them about sharing the challenges within the church and what we could pray about with them as they reach the country of Rwanda.  Pastor Karangwa Eustache Amani shared with us about the history of the church in Rwanda starting with the Catholic Church about 100 years ago and then missionaries came from the west.   During these times Christianity was over 90% in the country but since Genocide it has dropped down to 45%.  One of the reason this happened as there were many Christians but very few had ever been discipled in their lives.  He is very concerned about the drop but understands there is a big problem with this.  They feel that many who have accepted Christ have had no follow up and oh did I mentioned that 45% of the population of Rwanda does not read or write.  They want to start with the children but no Sunday School classes or teachers for them, then the youth which is becoming a large population in the country.  There are few pastors who want to work for zero dollars as they too need to provide for their families.  This denomination does not have money to pay their pastors or even the upper level leaders.  Poverty, war, genocide and many other factors have led to the drop in Christians in the country.  They are looking at starting small house churches which have been successful in the past or maybe even build a small building so that the congregation could at least get out of the rain or cold weather but the government is concerned about groups of people meeting like this as they fear that they may be plotting against the government. The church in Rwanda is meeting with the government officials to try and resolve this issue.

Of course one of the biggest problems in the church today is still the trust factor after the genocide 14 years ago and then reconciliation, how do they do this?

Many questions and many concerns from the church leaders.  Oh and last but never least, the Muslims are moving into their towns and offering people money to convert to Islam.  So many are doing this due to the poverty and other situations.  So you can see why the church is concerned but they are willing to press forward and reach these areas and bring the church back to Rwanda.  There are now 3 mosques in the Kigali now, do you know haw many are in your home town?  We need to start looking around.

Please pray for the churches in Rwanda that they will continue to share Christ love with others and that many will come to know Jesus and then for them to be discipled by others and not left alone.  Pray for the youth of this country and their growth in the Lord and for the church to hold together in the name of Jesus and not their tribes.

John